- Carl McCunn
Carl McCunn (1946 - 1981) was an American wildlife photographer who inadvertently stranded himself in the Alaskan wilderness and committed suicide when he ran out of supplies.
In March 1981, McCunn paid a
bush pilot to drop him at a remote lake near theColeen River inAlaska , on the southern margin of theBrooks Range , to photograph wildlife. Though McCunn believed he had arranged for the pilot to pick him up in August, he had apparently never confirmed this.cite book
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=77CByBIjX-MC
title=Danger Stalks the Land: Alaskan Tales of Death and Survival
author=Larry Kaniut
year=1999
publisher=Macmillan
isbn=0312241208]McCunn, who had spent five months on the Brooks Range in 1976cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEED61638F93AA25751C1A964948260&sec=health&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
title=Left in Wilds, Man Penned Dying Record
author=Associated Press
date=December 19 1982
publisher=The New York Times
accessdate=2008-04-23] , flew in with 500 rolls of film, 1,400 pounds of provisions, tworifles and ashotgun . He prematurely disposed of boxes of shotgun shells in the river, used the wrongemergency hand signals to a plane that had spotted him and waved the plane off , and waited too long in the season to attempt to walk out.After realizing he was stranded, McCunn made great efforts to survive, such as winterizing his tent.
In February 1982 Alaska State Troopers found his body, emaciated and frozen, along with a 100-page diary that documented his demise. He wrote "I think I should have used more foresight about arranging my departure." cite book
title=Into The Wild
author=Jon Krakauer
year=1996
publisher=Anchor Books
isbn=0385486804] Rather than starve, McCunn had shot himself in the head.A coroner's jury, which took testimony from his friends indicating his failure to make "specific arrangements" for his departure, ruled his death a suicide.
References
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